Tillett Gardens Guest House — Hotel in Anna's Retreat

I stayed at Tillett Gardens Hostel for a week in January 2025, booking through the Hostelworld app. While communication prior to arrival was good—especially as I needed some flexibility due to arriving in St. Thomas by sea—the experience once I arrived was disappointing.

First, there were no clear instructions on how to check in, and I was shuffled between several people before finally being given access to the female dorm. The dorm itself, along with the bathroom, was not clean, although the bed sheets provided were. Linens were supposed to include a towel, but I had to ask for one since only bed linens were initially provided.

The lack of cleanliness and maintenance throughout the property was alarming. The room I stayed in had no working light, and the dorm next door only had a broken lamp for lighting. The common area was dim as well, with many burned-out lightbulbs. The shared bathroom was visibly dirty, with hair, dirt, and an unwashed rug on the floor. There was no hand soap provided for the toilet, which was unsanitary.

In the kitchen, basic essentials were missing—there weren’t even any forks available to eat meals. The refrigerator had not been cleaned out in quite some time, and the fire extinguisher was out of charge, raising serious safety concerns. The common area featured worn-out furniture with filthy cushions, pamphlets scattered across the dirty floor, and floors so grimy that walking barefoot would turn your feet black.

Unfortunately, a water main broke during my stay, leaving the property without drinking water, showers, or functioning toilets for over 30 hours. While the break itself wasn’t the management’s fault, no efforts were made to use the cistern on the property to provide water for basic needs like flushing toilets.

Additionally, the common area had no clear or enforced quiet hours, which detracted from the overall experience. For the price—by far the most expensive hostel I’ve ever stayed at—the conditions were unacceptable. Fixtures were broken, walls were scraped and dirty, and overall cleanliness was neglected.

On the positive side, the staff was friendly, and the onsite restaurant, Rock City Tacos, served delicious, homemade meals. However, these redeeming qualities don’t outweigh the hostel’s many shortcomings. Unless you absolutely have no other options, I cannot recommend staying at Tillett...

Pretty good place, especially for the price. Wi-Fi in our room was strong (75 Mbps up and down), because the router was in the same room, but it had trouble reaching the kitchen area. AC wasn't working in the common area, but worked in our room and another guest said it worked fine in the women's shared dorm. The floorboards in our room had some material poking up between them in a few spots, I suspect insulation that had gotten wet. Staff was very helpful for planning daily activities. Not a lot of tourist sites nearby, but a few minutes walk to take the safari buses to most of the island. We were a bit sad to learn that a lot of the amenities listed online (like the restaurant) weren't available in September as it's hurricane season (to be fair, we were closely watching Hurricane Lee's development to be sure it wasn't coming our way). Kitchen was clean and well supplied; we cooked our own dinner half the nights to save money. Highly recommend if...

Ok so I'm going to start with saying this is only the second review I have ever left but with what happened I had to. I came down on the 9th of August and was supposed to leave on the 16th. Between late night on the 15th through most of the early morning on the 17th we got hit by hurricane Erin (a category 5) and obviously my flight was canceled. She has been nothing but understanding about the whole thing and said it is no problem staying. If you are coming down at any point I 1000%...